East Coulee Springfest

We were out to East Coulee last weekend, a sleepy little hamlet just outside of Drumheller. Though it is 19 km away, East Coulee is, in fact, part of the Town Of Drumheller and is under their municipal care, so it's a bedroom suburb so to speak.

Once a thriving community of over 3000 people, it's been called a ghost town since the coal mines shut down and the population dwindled to less than 100. Several of the towns original mining shacks still stand, abandoned and in disrepair, but many have been bought up and turned into cool little cabin style homes. We stayed with friends in their early 80's 'mobile home', which also shares land with the original post office and postmaster's cabin. Both have had extensive work done on them and serve as funky little studios.

The weekend visit was also inspired by Springfest, a music festival running Friday night and all day Saturday in the East Coulee School Museum and the Community Hall. The music portion of the visit was pretty interesting, with a huge variety of predominantly Albertan musicians. My favourite was a group of teenagers called the Static Shift, who played a blues-rock reminiscent of early 70's bands like The James Gang, Bad Company and Led Zeppelin, but 99% of what they played was original music. They were good enough to make me want to go see them again, when they play at Calgary's Blues Can on June 4th. 

After an evening of music, we walked along the river bank path and then headed back to the 'trailer' for a campfire, which soon attracted a few more wandering souls. Saturday we did the walking tour of the town, checking out the old buildings and popping into a few yard sales. It felt a bit like stepping back in time, to an easier and more relaxed era and was a great way to spend the weekend.

 

 

 

Springfest at The East Coulee School Museum

Usually it's "no minors"! haha

Along the banks of the Red Deer River

Campfire friends

I liked this bird-cabin

The slow, meandering Red Deer River

A typical street corner

Small town building facade

With Mother's Day on Sunday, I hung a ribbon in this spirit circle in honour of my Mum